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'"^"^^ NOTES 

SB 241 

.S16 

Copy 1 IN REGARD TO 




TEXTILE PLANTS OF BRAZIL, 

AT 

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION 
AT PHILADELPHIA IN 1876, 

BY 

JOSfi DE SALDANHA DA GAMA, PH. D. 

Member of the Brazilian Commission and Professor 

of Botany in the Polytechnical School 

of Rio de Janeiro. 



NEW YORK: 

" O Novo MuNDO " Printing Office, 39 Park Row, 

"Times " Building. 

1876. 



• J 



THE TEXTILE PLANTS OF BRAZIL 

AT THE 

UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION IN PHILADELPHIA. 



It is to be lamented that Brazil did not send a 
complete selection of her textile plants, it is proper 
however to remark, that a good number of the most 
important species are well represented in the Agri- 
cultural Hall, and are held in high esteem by com- 
petent judges. But the beautiful filaments of the 
Miisas or Banana trees, and those of Ananassa sativa, 
which was included by us in the great Expositions of 
Vienna and Paris, are unfortunately wanting here. 
We have now, however, quantities of other textile 
material, which we will immediately proceed to 
notice : 

Hemp — {CanaMs sativa.) — A European plant which 
has been acclimated in Brazil, where it is used for 



1st experiment, 
2ii(l '' 

3rd " 

4tli " 

5th " 

Averasre, 



10 


grammes. 


15 




14 




18 




19 




15 





n 



The Piiiclayba {Xylopia sericea)^ which, in the lan- 
guage of the native Indians, means the kook-wood, 
contains, in its cortical layers, ribbon-like strips, sim- 
ilar to those of the Embria (X. frutescens), both of 
which are used by the natives to tie their fences, or 
at best, for coarse ropes to tie their cattle. 

All of these varieties of the textile elements con- 
trast with the dark color of the false parasite, known 
among us by the name of Barba de velho or Tilland- 
sia iisneoides in botanical phrq^seology. From the 
branches of this tree fall flexible twigs of this ejnj)- 
liyta, which the country people gather up to fill 
mattresses, pillows, cushions, and to pack porcelain 
and glass. 

They are principally adapted to the mattress- 
maker's purj)ose, and these white downs, as well as 
some other yellow ones, extracted from the fruit of 
BomhaceaSj are remarkably light, and excellent mate- 
rials for winter mattresses and pillows. We have 
products of this nature from the Cliorisia speciosa of 
Eio de Janeiro and from the celebrated Samahuma 
of the Amazon, or Eriodendron, which botanist con- 
sider the largest tree in the world. 

To complete this epitomized report, we will point 
to the three novelties in textile substances, each of 
which is very interesting. In the first place, the 



— 7 — 

u,iural paper from the tree Lasiandra papyrus from 
3lie Serra Dom-ada, in tlie province of Goyaz, due 
perhaps to successive exfoliations of the epidermis ; 
in the second place, the seeds of an IchiteSj from the 
province of Parana, adorned with flocks of vegetable 
silk, similar to the Tafetone of Africa, intended for 
felt for hats; finally, the vegetable wool from the 
in^ovince of Alagoas, or felt taken from the interior 
of a small fruit {Malvacca f ), of weak consistency, 
but of a quite original apx)earance, from one to two 
centimetres in length. (*) 

In the Main Building visitors will observe the long 
spatlias of the palm Manicaria sacoifera^ transformed 
into beautiful hats, and the filaments of the Mosnor- 
dica operculataj into baskets, hats, and other articles 
of delicate handiwork. 



Philadelphia, May ISth, 1876. 



Dk. JOSfi DE SALDANHA DA GAMA. 



* (*) My investigations of the beautifnl fibres of Mr. Severino da Costa 
Leite are mentioned in the report published by my fellow-member, Dr. 
NicoUo Moreira. 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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